38+ Herman Wouk Quotes On War, Education And World

Herman Wouk was an American novelist who wrote a number of bestselling books including The Caine Mutiny and Marjorie Morningstar. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, for The Caine Mutiny in 1952 and for Slattery's Hurricane in 1953. Wouk was also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Herman Wouk on war, life, education.

Top 10 Herman Wouk Quotes

1. When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
2. Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.
3. Discount my partiality, but my report is that so far The Winds of War is looking good.
4. This is an excellent martini — sort of tastes like it isn't there at all, just a cold cloud.
5. Some people think that all the equipment you need to discuss religion is a mouth.
6. I felt there's a wealth in Jewish tradition, a great inheritance. I'd be a jerk not to take advantage of it.
7. The door available to everyone that can lead to happiness & success is the modest door of the public library. I found it to be so in my own life and work.
8. The only true non-conformists are in the asylums; the only radically free spirits are in the death house awaiting the chair. We live by patterns.
9. We are in the black theater of nonexistence. In an eye blink the curtain is up, the stage ablaze, for the vast drama of ourselves.
10. Illusion is an anodyne, bred by the gap between wish and reality.

Herman Wouk Short Quotes

• I regard the writing of humor as a supreme artistic challenge.
• I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans.
• A leader can't dash ahead around the bend out of sight.
• ... talk, not sex, constitutes most of the intercourse between a man and his wife.
• When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
• This life is slow suicide, unless you read.
• The only imaginative fiction being written today is income tax returns.
• Write a page a day. It will add up.
• The Talmud: Heart's Blood of the Jewish Faith.
• Some hours weigh against a whole lifetime.

Herman Wouk Quotes About War

Strange, isn't it, that warfare has come down to fencing with complicated toys that only a few seedy scholars can make or understand. — Herman Wouk

War is a business in which a lot of people watch a few people get killed and are damn glad it wasn't them. — Herman Wouk

... a war always ends. — Herman Wouk

Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace. It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind. — Herman Wouk

Herman Wouk Famous Quotes And Sayings

The Talmud is to this day the circulating heart's blood of the Jewish religion. Whatever laws, customs or ceremonies we observe-whether we are orthodox, conservative, reform or merely spasmodic sentimentalists-we follow the Talmud. It is our common Law. — Herman Wouk

The American people are not cowardly. But, living in prosperous isolation, they have been the spoiled children of modern history. — Herman Wouk

A writer is nothing but a gray dirt-covered root. The works he sends up into the sunlight are his fruits, and only those are worthy of attention. — Herman Wouk

About the nicest thing God ever invented was alcohol. He's proud of it, too. The Bible's full of kind remarks about booze. — Herman Wouk

Life was a colorful painful pageant to her, in which right and wrong were wobbly yardsticks. Values and morals varied with time and place. Sweeping righteous views, like Victor Henry's Christian morality and Rule's militant socialism, tended to cause much hell and to cramp what little happiness there was to be had. So she thought. — Herman Wouk

The President has a quick and able mind, though not everybody gives him that, not by a long shot. — Herman Wouk

The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you're not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. — Herman Wouk

Every hour spent on the Caine was a great hour in all our lives-if you don't think so now you will later on, more and more. — Herman Wouk

My two sons speak Hebrew, and are familiar with the scriptures and with rabbinic literature. This is the way we live. — Herman Wouk

I try to write a certain amount each day, five days a week. A rule sometimes broken is better than no rule. — Herman Wouk

The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you are not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and common-sense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to quash them. Constantly ask yourself, "How would I do this if I were a fool?" Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you will never go wrong. — Herman Wouk

Let us fill a cup and drink to that most noble, ridiculous, laughable, sublime figure in our lives...The Young Man Who Was. Let us drink to his dreams, for they were rainbow-colored; to his appetites, for they were strong; to his blunders, for they were huge; to his pains for they were sharp; to his time for it was brief; and to his end, for it was to become one of us. — Herman Wouk

The films of The Caine Mutiny and Marjorie Morningstar always seemed to me mere thin skims of the story lines, and I never did see a meager Hollywood caper called Youngblood Hawke, vaguely based on my 800-page novel. So it was that I opted for television, with its much broader time limits, for The Winds of War.'' — Herman Wouk

I think it's a bit like coming to the end of a book. The plot's in its thickest, all the characters are in a mess, but you can see that there aren't fifty pages left, and you know that the finish can't be far off. — Herman Wouk

Life Lessons by Herman Wouk

1. Herman Wouk's work emphasizes the importance of resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity. He also encourages readers to think critically and to strive for personal growth and development.
2. Wouk's characters often demonstrate the power of self-reflection and the courage to take risks in pursuit of one's goals.
3. Through his stories, Wouk encourages readers to embrace their own unique perspectives and to never give up on their dreams, no matter how difficult the journey may be.